ESG - Gymnastics
Western brings in another huge haul
by MATT KRUEGER Reporter

Amherst sisters Kristina, left, and Kailyn, right, Arcury were all smiles during the opening ceremonies of the Empire State Games and after they helped the Western Region open women's gymnastics team win the gold medal. They're joined by Kaitlyn Lopez of Buffalo and Courtney Connors of Lancaster. Photo by Jason Nadolinski Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

The Western Region should show up to the Empire State Games with a forklift to carry home all the medals it wins.

Following up last year's record setting performance of 34 medals, Western captured 31 this year, including gold in three of the four team events.

"It's amazing," scholastic women's coach Lisa Stumpf said of the teams' propensity to gobble up medals like Pacman. "The kids work so hard through the year. They really want to perform at this meet. It means so much to them."

In winning 31 medals, Western took team gold in the scholastic and open women and scholastic men divisions. Only the open men's team failed to reach the peak, finishing second to a loaded New York City squad. Western gymnasts won four medals in the all around competition and 23 in individual event finals.

Scholastic Women

Accustomed to winning by huge margins - Western topped the list by eight points in 2006 and six points in 2005 - the girls had to go to the last event to pull out its gold medal this year.

Western trailed Adirondack by two tenths of a point heading into the last rotation, but nailed five vaults to springboard in front. Western scored 171.00 to edge out Adirondack (170.20). Long Island finished third at 164.025.

"This year was a little bit tougher," Lisa Stumpf said. "We didn't win by such a big margin, like we did last year. We had a lot of newcomers this year and they handled the pressure. We told them we had to make some really good vaults and they did it."

Buffalo's Kaitlyn Lopez and Orchard Park's Erin Hamister led the team by placing first and second, respectively, in the all-around competition. Hamburg's Nicole Radon and Kelsey Kryszak, Lancaster's Chelsea Recor and Youngstown's Andrea Favero all placed in the top 20 in all-around.

Lancaster's Mary Hamilton added a gold in the floor finals, while Lopez captured the vault title and finished second on bars. Hamister took third on floor.

Scholastic Men

Western's Aaron Benson had the meet of his young life, but it wasn't enough to bring home the all-around championship.

Benson posted one of his best scores with a 54.2, but couldn't overtake Long Island's Mas Portocarrero (54.750). Although he didn't live up to his goal of winning the gold, Benson said he wasn't disappointed in winning silver at all.

"I don't really think anything held me back," the 14-year-old Cheektowaga resident said. "I took a few steps here and there that I could obviously clean up. I think it was probably one of the best meets I had all year, because it definitely had one of the highest scores I've ever gotten. I'm very proud of what I did. I worked hard. I took second, but there is always next year."

Western also got strong performances out of Grand Island's Jimmy Pezzino, Clarence's Adam Arena and Williamsville's Cody Stumpf and Nate and Noah Roberson. All placed in the top 25 in the all-around competition.

The squad came through with a huge win in the team competition, beating second-place Long Island by nine points. Western scored a 245.8 to Long Island's 236.85. Adirondack was third with 212.05.

"I thought they did great," coach Dan Molnar said. "We knew going into the meet that Long Island would be tough. We just kept tearing along and we beat them by nine points, which is huge. It wasn't even close. We wiped them out. Our fourth and fifth guys really helped us win."

Open Women

Western won the team title by more than two points, as Penfield's Sasha Kourbatova claimed the all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise crowns. Lancaster's Courtney Connors, who had the highest score total at the regional tryouts, won the vault championship. Buffalo's Kayla Gray won the balance beam title.

Western had gotten off to a shaky start on the first event, uneven bars. The team counted a fall, which carries a half a point deduction. But in sticking the other three events, it scored 182.35 total points to take first. Adirondack (182.00) took the silver medal, while Long Island captured bronze (178.65).

"We just didn't seem like we were as good as we could be," coach Kurt Stumpf said about his team's showing on bars. "After we got off bars and went to the next three events, we hit everything. Once we got through beam, which was the second event, we knew we were in pretty good shape. We got through the two hardest events first and we only counted one fall."

Much of Western's success came from the wealth of experience carried on the team. Kourbatova, Connors, Gray, Sanborn's Nicole Irving, Williamsville's Kristina and Kailyn Arcury and Grand Island's Jenna Raepple had all competed in the Games before this year. They understood the magnitude. The experience helped the team rebound from a rough beginning.

"Yeah, it really did, because we made a mistake on bars, and it didn't really bother them at all," Kurt Stumpf said. "We just went to the next event and they just picked it up a notch. It didn't even faze them."

Open Men

Heading into the Games Molnar knew his open team would have trouble competing against some of the more seasoned teams. In losing two of last year's top gym- nasts in Karl Jaanimagi and Matt Long, Western went younger and lost years of experience.

Western still finished second with 249.15 points. New York City, led by all-around champion John Orozco, won with 254.45. Central took the bronze medal with 221.500.

"We had some new guys in this year and then John Orozco moving up for New York City was huge for them, because he's probably one of the best guys in the country," Molnar said. "We just fell a little short. We ended up taking fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth places. We had a bunch of guys in a row there. We just needed some of the top guys to show up."

Williamsville's Keith Stumpf led the team, finishing fifth in the all-around competition with 52.9 points. A slew of teammates followed him, as Webster's Adam Marou (50.6), Amherst's Michael Morse (50.2) and Buffalo's Kenneth Byrd (49.85) finished six, seven, eight. Stumpf could have placed higher if not for two mistakes on his high bar routine. He fell on his release move and didn't stick his dismount.

"I could have done a little better, but I did have those two falls on high bar," he said. "Usually I hit that, but I had an off day."

Stumpf added a gold medal on vault and a silver medal on floor during Saturday's event finals. Morse took silver on vault.

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com